"The removal of the author... is not merely an historical fact or an act of writing; it utterly transforms
the modern text (or ñ which is the same thing ñ the text is henceforth
made and read in such a way that at all levels its author is absent.)"
(145)

Barthes in S/Z, is of the opinion
that the removal of the author is simply a part of discourse. As such,
the necessity of having the author in the text or story becomes redundant.

This is illustrated in his short
story "Sarrasine", in which the reader becomes the
"Author" or rather the producer of the text; the reader as the producer
replacing the authorial perspective.